Freezing Football

It has been freezing here, literally. The boys couldn't handle not going out and playing. The dawned their coats and gloves and headed out for some fun.Gavin throwing the ball to Hunter.

The chase.
Not so fast.

They had a great time and loved getting some fresh air. I'll have to admit, I loved it too. The got that restless energy out, that boys have. It doesn't look like it's going to warm up anytime soon. It's not to bad as long as it doesn't rain.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we were so lucky to spend time with Aaron's family. Dana and Jason invited us to their home in Silverton, OR. It was so fun for the cousins to get together. It was also fun for the adults to get together.

Maya and Harrison couldn't wait to play together.

Harrison may look like his not liking this, but believe me he was having a great time.

Graham, Alice and Gavin

My sweet man.

Justin and Ashley

Some of the big boys-Quinten, Brandon(friend), Ian, and Cameron(friend).

The rest of the big boys-Nicholas, Gavin, Ender and Hunter.

Admiring the fire.

Gretchen, Kelly and Sonja.

Two great cousins that can't get enough of each other.

Cousins

Dana and Ashley, no they didn't coordinate their outfits, but don't the look fab.

Harrison, there always has to be weapons, right?

Chattin' it up with Jason.

I'm one of the luckiest ladies to have married into such a great family. I love getting together with them and with it could me more frequent.

All Aboard!

Hunter was a big help the other day and was playing trains with Graham. He built the track for him and then played with him.

I think he was taken back to when he was Graham's age and loved Thomas the Tank Engine. What great kids I have.

My Boys and Me

It's rare to find me reading to all the boys. Hunter is usually more than happy to head downstairs to be in his room by himself, before Gavin gets in there.

I loved reading to them.

It's nice to catch these moments of good times. Just me reading to the boys.

We were struck with the swine flu on Oct. 23rd and weren't free until Nov. 11th. Thankfully Hunter, Graham, Aaron and I didn't get it, ...yet. We have been free of it for one week and 3 days, but who's counting. Gavin started it all on a Friday, Gretchen the next Friday, followed by Harrison the next Thursday. I was hoping that we wouldn't be doing it for 5 weeks. Hopefully we are all healthy for Thanksgiving.

Humanities

In Hunter's Humanities class they are learning to knit. They are all supposed to complete a square and all of the squares will be made into blankets for an orphanage in Ethiopia in one of our sister cities. It is such a great thing. I was in the class for several days helping to teach the kids to knit. It was so fun to see them get so excited that they were making progress. Hunter has begun working on his next square. Maybe I'll have to teach him how to do hats?

Halloween

Hunter as Harry Potter. He went to the Cole's to go trick-or-treating with Ian, Brandon, Cole, Charlie and her friends.

He was pretty excited about this new freedom. Me, I'm not so sure how excited I am about it. They had a lot of fun. Also, yesterday Hunter went to the Beaver game with Uncle Shannen and Grandpa Jim. What a great day for Hunter!

The rest of us got ready to head out into the neighborhood. Gretchen had been a little weepy all day about whether or not she was going to go trick-or-treating. She still has a bit of a fever and cough. She did get to go for a little while.

Gretchen as Dorothy (I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the shoes.), Harrison as a shark (I made that costume for Hunter years ago.), Gavin as Ron Weasley (I added some sleeves to a Zoro cap we had for both Hunter and Gavin's cloaks.), and Graham as a lion.

The haul.

Gretchen, Gavin and Hunter's buckets were overflowing.

Pumpkin Carving

The kids have had three days off of school for Parent-Teacher Conferences. We were planning on going downtown to trick-or-treat. Gretchen woke up this morning with a fever. Man was she upset she couldn't go trick-or-treating.

We carved our pumpkins instead. For dinner we had the Papa Murphy's pumpkin pizza. She's not as disappointed now.